Ah, pizza—the any-ingredient holder—what would we do without it? If you are as much of a fan as we are, say no to stale, premade crusts and try this delicious, easy to make dough at home! We suggest using Tipo ‘00’ flour, which can be found in Italian delis or on Amazon, but a simple white bread flour will do as well. Just make sure that it is high-gluten to get the dough nice and elasticy. If you want add a little nutty flavor and subtle yellow coloring to your dough, use 800 g of the Tipo ‘00’ flour or white flour and 200 g of finely ground semolina flour.

You’ll want to start by clearing a large, clean workspace. Sieve the kilogram of flour (or flour and semolina mix) and teaspoon of salt onto this space, then poke a well in the middle.

Pour 650 ml of lukewarm water into a medium-sized bowl and add the yeast, sugar, and olive oil. Mix and let rest a couple of minutes before pouring it into the flour’s well.

Gradually scrape the flour into the well with a fork to incorporate it into the water, yeast, sugar and olive oil. Continue to stir the flour into the liquid until the flour starts to come together. Dust a bit of dry flour on your hands and pull the remaining flour into a ball, then knead the dough on the workspace until you have a smooth, somewhat sticky ball. To knead the dough, use the heel of your hand to push the dough forward on the workspace, then fold it in half, and repeat the process. Working the dough to make it smooth and somewhat elastic can actually be quite therapeutic, but be careful not to over-knead it!

Dust flour in a large bowl to avoid sticking and place the dough inside. Dust a little more flour on top of the ball of dough before covering with a damp cloth and leaving to rest at room temperature. Check in an hour later—the ball should be twice as big.

Time to “knock back” the dough, which means kneading it on your workspace (which should be dusted with flour) to force the air out. If you’re preparing the dough for later, cover it and store it in the fridge. If you’re using it right away, split the dough into as many pizzas as you plan on making. Using a rolling pin, roll the balls out into ½ cm thick circles and let rest another 15 minutes. Dust flour and rub a bit of olive oil on tin foil, preheat the oven to high, and prepare your toppings before adding them to the dough and popping your delicious homemade pizzas in the oven for 20 minutes. Voila!

Check out these unconventional pizza toppings to mix things up with this everyday pizza dough.